WFMJ-DT2
Encyclopedia
WFMJ-DT2, known on-air as WBCB, is CW Network
affiliate for Youngstown, Ohio
and New Castle, Pennsylvania
. Launched in November 2004 as a WB
affiliate, WBCB is the sister station of Youngstown's NBC
affiliate, WFMJ. The station operates on WFMJ's digital subchannel
on channel 20.2, though through the use of PSIP
is shown on virtual channel
21.2. Despite Youngstown's small market size (ranked #106 by Nielsen Media Research
), WBCB was one of the nation's first digital subchannels launched that wasn't a weather
channel such as NBC Weather Plus
.
At the time, WFMJ chose to affiliate WBCB with The WB because of the Warner Bros.
being originally from Youngstown, as well as the area being grossly underserved by the network since then-WB affiliate WBNX
from Cleveland
(now with the CW, like WBCB) was only available on the northern fringes of the market on cable (despite being one of that network's strongest affiliates without Youngstown) while Pittsburgh
WB affiliate WCWB
(itself now with MyNetwork TV) wasn't even available at all. (By contrast, Cleveland's then-UPN
affiliate WUAB
was and remains widely available on cable in Youngstown while Pittbsurgh's WNPA
was available in small parts of the market.) Most of the market received WBWO
, the cable-only WB affiliate, from the Wheeling
/Steubenville
market, with systems owned and operated by Time Warner Cable
(the largest cable provider in Youngstown) only receiving it for prime time
hours, otherwise sharing channel space with MTV2
. Comcast
and Armstrong Cable
both offered both MTV2 and WBWO 24 hours on their own channel space.
WBCB is carried on all major cable systems in the Youngstown/Warren area, including the two largest - Time Warner and Armstrong. It is also carried by DirecTV
.
WBCB's programming begins each day with The Daily Buzz morning news (6-9am) followed by a Cosby hour and a court block with Judge Mathis and Judge Alex. WBCB airs the teen drama Degrassi as well as an hour of Friends (5-6pm) and Frasier (6-7pm). WBCB's 7-8pm programming consists of Seinfeld and Frasier respectively. CW prime-time airs 8-10pm followed by an hour of Will & Grace.
Since the station is one of WFMJ's digital sub-channels, its official callsign is also WFMJ-DT. The "WBCB" calls are strictly for marketing purposes that date back to the station's days as a WB affiliate. For unknown reasons, the artificial call sign
"WBCB" was kept after The WB and UPN
merged to form the CW in 2006. Since the Youngstown market never had a UPN affiliate of its own, WBCB was chosen by default as the market's CW affiliate. In response (and with digital subchannels more common by this point), WYTV
launched MyNetwork TV affiliate MY-YTV
that fall.
The CW Television Network
The CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...
affiliate for Youngstown, Ohio
Youngstown, Ohio
Youngstown is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Mahoning County; it also extends into Trumbull County. The municipality is situated on the Mahoning River, approximately southeast of Cleveland and northwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
and New Castle, Pennsylvania
New Castle, Pennsylvania
New Castle is a city in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, United States, northwest of Pittsburgh and near the Pennsylvania-Ohio border just east of Youngstown, Ohio; in 1910, the total population was 36,280; in 1920, 44,938; and in 1940, 47,638. The population has fallen to 26,309 according to the...
. Launched in November 2004 as a WB
The WB Television Network
The WB Television Network is a former television network in the United States that was launched on January 11, 1995 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and Tribune Broadcasting. On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Warner Bros...
affiliate, WBCB is the sister station of Youngstown's NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
affiliate, WFMJ. The station operates on WFMJ's digital subchannel
Digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a means to transmit more than one independent program at the same time from the same digital radio or digital television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compression techniques to reduce the size of each individual...
on channel 20.2, though through the use of PSIP
Program and System Information Protocol
The Program and System Information Protocol is the protocol used in the ATSC digital television system for carrying metadata about each channel in the broadcast MPEG transport stream of a TV station and for publishing information about television programs so that viewers can select what to watch...
is shown on virtual channel
Virtual channel
In telecommunications, a logical channel number , also known as virtual channel, is a channel designation which differs from that of the actual radio channel on which the signal travels....
21.2. Despite Youngstown's small market size (ranked #106 by Nielsen Media Research
Nielsen Media Research
Nielsen Media Research is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre films and newspapers...
), WBCB was one of the nation's first digital subchannels launched that wasn't a weather
Weather
Weather is the state of the atmosphere, to the degree that it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy. Most weather phenomena occur in the troposphere, just below the stratosphere. Weather refers, generally, to day-to-day temperature and precipitation activity, whereas climate...
channel such as NBC Weather Plus
NBC Weather Plus
NBC Weather Plus was a 24-hour, commercially sponsored, weather-oriented broadcast/cable television network jointly owned by NBC Universal and the local affiliates of the NBC network. It debuted on November 15, 2004 and shut down on December 31, 2008...
.
At the time, WFMJ chose to affiliate WBCB with The WB because of the Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
being originally from Youngstown, as well as the area being grossly underserved by the network since then-WB affiliate WBNX
WBNX-TV
WBNX-TV, virtual channel 55 , is the CW television affiliate serving the Cleveland/Akron/Canton, Ohio television market; it brands itself as "WBNX, The CW". The studios are located in Cuyahoga Falls and the transmitter is in Parma, although it is licensed to Akron...
from Cleveland
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
(now with the CW, like WBCB) was only available on the northern fringes of the market on cable (despite being one of that network's strongest affiliates without Youngstown) while Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
WB affiliate WCWB
WPMY
WPMY is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for Western Pennsylvania that is licensed to Pittsburgh. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 42 from a transmitter located in Monroeville, Pennsylvania. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, WPMY is the sister station of...
(itself now with MyNetwork TV) wasn't even available at all. (By contrast, Cleveland's then-UPN
UPN
United Paramount Network was a television network that was broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States from 1995 to 2006. UPN was originally owned by Viacom/Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, the former of which, through the Paramount Television Group, produced most of the network's...
affiliate WUAB
WUAB
WUAB, identified on-air as "My43 The Block, WUAB", is the MyNetworkTV affiliate in Cleveland, Ohio. The station is licensed to the suburb of Lorain, and it shares a studio in downtown Cleveland with sister station WOIO, Cleveland's CBS affiliate. Its transmitter is located in Parma, Ohio...
was and remains widely available on cable in Youngstown while Pittbsurgh's WNPA
WPCW
WPCW is a The CW-affiliated television station for Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that is licensed to Jeannette. WPCW is owned by the CBS Corporation and serves as an affiliate of The CW Television Network for the television market...
was available in small parts of the market.) Most of the market received WBWO
The CW Plus
The CW Plus is a group of primarily digital sub-channels, analog, and non-broadcast cable television outlets for the CW Television Network, for markets below the top 99 television media markets in the United States....
, the cable-only WB affiliate, from the Wheeling
Wheeling, West Virginia
Wheeling is a city in Ohio and Marshall counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia; it is the county seat of Ohio County. Wheeling is the principal city of the Wheeling Metropolitan Statistical Area...
/Steubenville
Steubenville, Ohio
Steubenville is a city located along the Ohio River in Jefferson County, Ohio on the Ohio-West Virginia border in the United States. It is the political county seat of Jefferson County. It is also a principal city of the Weirton–Steubenville, WV-OH Metropolitan Statistical Area...
market, with systems owned and operated by Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable is an American cable television company that operates in 28 states and has 31 operating divisions...
(the largest cable provider in Youngstown) only receiving it for prime time
Prime time
Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast programming during the middle of the evening for television programing.The term prime time is often defined in terms of a fixed time period—for example, from 19:00 to 22:00 or 20:00 to 23:00 Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast...
hours, otherwise sharing channel space with MTV2
MTV2
MTV2 is a cable network that is widely available in the United States on digital cable and satellite television, and is progressively being added to analogue cable lineups across the nation...
. Comcast
Comcast
Comcast Corporation is the largest cable operator, home Internet service provider, and fourth largest home telephone service provider in the United States, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers in 39 states and the...
and Armstrong Cable
Armstrong Group of Companies
-History:Armstrong Group of Companies began in 1946 and was originally called Armstrong County Line Construction. Founded by Jud L. Sedwick, the company was headquartered in Kittanning, Armstrong County, in Pennsylvania...
both offered both MTV2 and WBWO 24 hours on their own channel space.
WBCB is carried on all major cable systems in the Youngstown/Warren area, including the two largest - Time Warner and Armstrong. It is also carried by DirecTV
DirecTV
DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...
.
WBCB's programming begins each day with The Daily Buzz morning news (6-9am) followed by a Cosby hour and a court block with Judge Mathis and Judge Alex. WBCB airs the teen drama Degrassi as well as an hour of Friends (5-6pm) and Frasier (6-7pm). WBCB's 7-8pm programming consists of Seinfeld and Frasier respectively. CW prime-time airs 8-10pm followed by an hour of Will & Grace.
Since the station is one of WFMJ's digital sub-channels, its official callsign is also WFMJ-DT. The "WBCB" calls are strictly for marketing purposes that date back to the station's days as a WB affiliate. For unknown reasons, the artificial call sign
Call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign is a unique designation for a transmitting station. In North America they are used as names for broadcasting stations...
"WBCB" was kept after The WB and UPN
UPN
United Paramount Network was a television network that was broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States from 1995 to 2006. UPN was originally owned by Viacom/Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, the former of which, through the Paramount Television Group, produced most of the network's...
merged to form the CW in 2006. Since the Youngstown market never had a UPN affiliate of its own, WBCB was chosen by default as the market's CW affiliate. In response (and with digital subchannels more common by this point), WYTV
WYTV
WYTV is the ABC-affiliated television station for the Mahoning Valley of Northeastern Ohio and Northwestern Pennsylvania that is licensed to Youngstown. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 36 from a transmitter on Shady Run Road in Boardman Township...
launched MyNetwork TV affiliate MY-YTV
WYTV-DT2
WYTV-DT2 is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for the Mahoning Valley of Northeastern Ohio and Northwestern Pennsylvania. It is a second digital subchannel of the area's ABC affiliate WYTV that is owned by PBC Broadcasting but operated by New Vision Television though a shared services...
that fall.
Station branding
- The Valley's WBThe WB Television NetworkThe WB Television Network is a former television network in the United States that was launched on January 11, 1995 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and Tribune Broadcasting. On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Warner Bros...
(2004–2006) - The Valley's CWThe CW Television NetworkThe CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...
(2006–present)